The present invention relates to a sifter for sifting materials such as flour.
In the food services industry, a variety of foods are breaded prior to baking or frying. For instance, in fried chicken franchises, the chicken pieces are dipped in a liquid batter and then rolled in powdered breading that adheres to the surface of the chicken pieces. The powdered breading, such as a flour mixture, is contained in a breading lug in sufficient quantity to allow several pieces of chicken to be breaded before the breading lug is removed and replaced with a new lug filled with a fresh flour mixture.
In order to reduce waste, and to improve the cost efficiency of breading baked or fried foods, it is common to sift the flour from the used breading lug to separate the reusable flour from the unusable doughballs that are formed as batter and blood drip into the breading lug.
In the prior art, the flour sifter has been of a vibratory or oscillatory type. One such device is illustrated in the patent to Russell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,498, in which a perforated semi-cylindrical sifter is rotationally oscillated so that the reusable flour falls through the perforations in the sifter into a collector bin, while the unusable doughballs are gradually directed to an opening in the end of the sifter. The vibratory equipment of the prior art is noisy and subject to the problems typical of vibrating equipment. Another problem experienced by these prior art devices arises when a breading mixture is used that includes a variety of powdered or granular compounds, such as salt and other spices. The vibratory sifters have a tendency to cause the less dense compounds to fall through the perforations in the sifter first, followed by the more dense compounds, thereby separating the breading mixture.
In view of the restrictions and problems encountered by the sifters of the prior art, it is one object of the present invention to provide a sifter for separating the usable breading mixture from the unusable doughballs. It is another object to provide a sifter that is quiet in operation and less susceptible to break-down than the vibratory devices of the prior art. Yet another object is to provide a sifter that will sift the breading mixture in a consistent and uniform manner, without separating the constituent components of the breading mixture. Further objects and benefits of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and accompanying figures.